Robert Tolman spoke about The Woodland Trust at the well-attended November meeting.

The trust’s aim is to create new woods, the protection of ancient woods and to inspire people to spend their leisure time in the many beautiful woods in the UK.

His illustrated talk explained the differences between natural woods and those planted since 1700s.

The future plans of the trust are for the care and protection of the woods by trying to double the amount of trees planted. Hopefully there will be no further loss to existing woods, but the progress of development such as the proposed HS2 may have an impact.

The trust works closely with schools and it encourages groups to raise money to purchase areas of forest land and plant new trees.

In the business part of the meeting, president Val Evans reported on the Autumn Council meeting, and several members had enjoyed the Teme and Tenbury group meeting, hosted by Menith Wood WI.

The next WI meeting is on Monday, December 9 with a Christmas lunch at Kateshill, Bewdley, starting at 1pm.